Aloha!

It feels great to be back in the water after last year was ended early due to acclimate weather conditions. The 2012 season looks promising as the warm winter has caused many of the pelagic migratory fish to come to Long Island waters earlier. The Happy Jack is in the water and ready to start fishing within the next few days, but I was already fortunate enough to get some bottom time during a vacation to Hawaii. It goes without saying that the Hawaiian islands are paradise on Earth, and I was able see some very interesting things during my two dives at Oahu and four dives at Maui. Enjoy the return of Submerged!

Hawaii Diving from Steve Fitzpatrick on Vimeo.

Maine Intermission

I haven't been able to get on the water lately but that won't stop August from being a promising month with the coming weeks ahead. I did however recently take a vacation to Moose-head Lake in Maine with 16 of my friends. It was an amazing week of partying and hanging out with Moose on the lake (which was right in our backyard). We even managed to get off our property one day to try white water rafting! Here's the resulting video:



It's good to be back home, ready to finish off the summer strong, and out on blue water.
Here's a bonus video of Danielle getting hit in the head by a raft, enjoy!

Full Moon, Full Cooler

July 14th was a night of large bass off of Montauk Point as the Happy Jack gave one more attempt at catching a large Striped Bass for the Striper Cup. After a slow afternoon tide with no fish to be had, the sun went down, the full moon came out, and the bite turned on. We ended up landing seven bass in total, most weighing in the 30lb range, as well as a few bluefish and even a dogfish. It was the type of night on the point you dream of, with perfect moonlit visibility and large stripers prowling the rocks. Bass are always fun to catch but this will be one of our last planned shots at them of the year, as we literally have bigger fish to fry. Offshore action here we come!

Submerged!

It was an awesome weekend of diving on the 9th and 10th as I finally completed my Open Water certification and did a total of 4 beach dives in Far Rockaway. These were my first dives in Long Island waters and I can safely say that I am not going to stop diving here anytime soon. You would be surprised at how much life is within 20 yards of the beach. The visibility may be much less then in tropical waters, but that is only due to the immense amount of plankton in the water which allows massive ecosystems to thrive in colder Long Island waters. These dives have made me excited to see what else our own backyard can hold, and I plan on diving again as soon as I get the chance.

Star Island Shark Tourney

I recently returned from an action packed weekend of braving rough offshore waters in the 25th annual Star Island Shark Tournament. We may not have won, but it was an awesome trip and over the course of two days we caught well over 20 sharks. Unfortunately for boats in the tournament (including the Happy Jack) makos were few and far between. Within minutes of chumming the water our boat was surrounded by blue sharks, and on both days it got to the point of frustration when trying to get a bait past their greedy jaws. Blue Sharks didn’t qualify for weighing unless they were over 250 lbs which is pretty ridiculous for them, so the few makos that came in ended up taking all of the prize money. Regardless of standing it was still one of the best weekends fishing in a long time and we even had pods of dolphins escort us home at the end of both days. Also to be noted was a large unidentified fin that showed up about 200 yards behind our boat on the very last drift, which served as a great note to end the trip on. Can’t wait to get back out!

The Start of Summer

It's finally here! Schools out till late August and the Happy Jack is being prepped for action. The weather may not be cooperating, as it seems to rain almost every day but its got to get nicer eventually and the Fitzpatrick fishing team plans to make the most of it this year. John, Mike, and myself have all entered into the 2011 Striper Cup, a full season contest with multiple categories and prizes for catching our specialty fish, the striped bass. There are even special pins awarded for catching a 30, 40, 50, or 60 pound fish, and $10,000 grand prize as well as a boat drawing. Will we be able to break into the 50 pounder club this year? Only time will tell.

The wait is killing me to get out on the water this season but hopefully my patience will be rewarded in a few weeks or so. To help pass the time here is a look at one of the outings I went on over this last semester at Oneonta. It was a 24 hour trip into the woods near my school completely alone. I really enjoyed the experience as it was a great way to reflect on your life and help give direction to where you want to go. The video may be boring but if you ever get the chance do it, I highly recommend it.

First Post!

This is the beginning of my new underwater adventure blog, Submerged. It will focus mainly on my experiences underwater either offshore fishing or scuba diving. I will try to keep an updated record accompanied with pictures and videos of all my outings. There's a lot to look forward to this year, including a whole bunch of dives in Long Island waters, offshore big game fishing, and even a shark tournament or two. Unfortunately we are still a month or so away from any real underwater fun, so with this first post I'll reminisce on the great experiences of last year - enjoy!